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Ever wonder what it takes to be one of America's favorite dancers? Valerie Rockey, 20, from Indianapolis, started dancing when she was 3. Her first dance teacher saw a picture of Rockey on her father's desk and recommended he take his daughter to a dance class. Seventeen years later, she auditioned for the 11th season of "So You Think You Can Dance," Fox's reality TV dance competition, and placed second. Rockey will be performing at the Lyric along with the other Top 10 dancers from Season 11 and some of the show's veteran all-stars. The show, part of a live tour series, is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. Rockey talked with b about her time on the show...

Related "So You Think You Can Dance (tv program)" Articles

Ever wonder what it takes to be one of America's favorite dancers? Valerie Rockey, 20, from Indianapolis, started dancing when she was 3.
Her first dance teacher saw a picture of Rockey on her father's desk and recommended he take his daughter to a dance...

Calling all history buffs. On Saturday, Oct. 11, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Howard County Historical Society and Ellicott Mills Brewing Co. are hosting a free lecture, "Howard County and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877," presented...

Cat Deeley welcomes us to the Season 11 finale, reminding us of all the prizes that will go to tonight's winner: Money, cover of a magazine, part in a Broadway show, yadda yadda.
Tonight, the judges table is extra-crowded with guest judges Tara...

For Day 2 of the Los Angeles auditions, Christina Applegate returns as the guest judge, along with regular judges Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe.
Serge Onik, 25, and Alla Kocherga, 24, are ballroom partners, and Alla is a twerker. She can even twerk...

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I'm switching from one dance show to another, with barely a week between the "Dancing with the Stars" finale and the "So You Think You Can Dance "premiere.
Audition episodes are often my...

Here we go with the Top 6! If this opening number, with its skeleton costuming motif and black lights, isn't a Pharside and Phoenix number, I'll eat one of those Bane masks (from "The Dark Knight Rises") they're wearing.
Our top six, in...

Apparently this going to be an all-Michael-Jackson night. Blergh. I expect to see way-too-many crotches being grabbed tonight. It'll probably take a crowbar to get Rudy's hand off his junk.
On an editorial note, allow me to apologize for getting some...

There are a lot of neon colors in this opening number, which is essentially a neon nightmare of a line dance. I'm old enough to remember when neon was a thing in the '80s. The boys are in cowboy shirts with 10-gallon hats. Then there's a jump rope and I...

Tonight's going to be BRUTAL, with four dancers eliminated so we can get down to a Top 10 for next week.
The top 14 do a group dance with a lot of white clothes. Ricky gets featured A LOT, in case you're wondering who this season's darling is. Jacque,...

The opening routine, with the 18 remaining dancers, feels like it owes more of its coolness to the costumes than the choreography. It was done by Christopher "Pharside" Jennings and Krystal "Phoenix" Meraz of the Academy of Villains...

Host Cat Deeley starts the show by telling us that six dancers are in danger and two will go home at the end of the evening.
It's a Broadway group number to "New York, New York" from "On the Town" - the guys are sailors, baseball...

Callbacks in Los Angeles (actually Pasadena), where 157 hopefuls will be winnowed down to 20 finalists. There will be tears, injuries and mental breakdowns, one assumes.
Joining Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe at the judges' table are Adam...

Here we are in Atlanta. You can tell the auditions were in winter, as there is only a narrow window for wearing scarves in Georgia. Joining Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy is Lil Buck, a Memphis-based dancer known for a style called "jookin."
...

Episode 2 of auditions has us in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Last week there weren't any joke auditions - some that were clearly not going to make it, but still had an interesting or heart warming story. And silly dad dancing is fine and not...

Opening number: The women are wearing white nightgowns and have Pinterest hair. The men are wearing white suits. Nobody's wearing shoes, and they're dancing to an extremely overwrought version of "The Wind Beneath My Wings." Not my favorite...

Hello, darlings. We're back in the ballroom, this time with a bunch of new dancers. That All-Star season had its moments, but was kind of a dud overall.
Lordie. Someone's given Barbara Barrie's hair to Kellie Pickler. (Relevant fact about Barrie: She's...

Note: Since I recap both Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance and they’re overlapping seasons this week and next, I’ll be covering both nights in one recap for these first two weeks.
They open with past winners and notable contestants...

Here we are in the final auditions before next week’s Las Vegas round. They’re in Memphis and it’s adorable to hear Cat Deeley say “The Mighty Mississippi.”
Judges for tonight are Mary Murphy, Wayne Brady and Nigel Lythgoe.
First audition is...

For Columbia's Alex Ketley, the dance road leading to this week's national TV exposure on "So You Think You Can Dance" began under the tutelage of the late Anne Allen as a member of her Columbia Multi-Media Dance Theater Company.That training...

"We are not an ordinary dance company," affirms Stephanie Yezek when asked about her Bare Contemporary Dance Collaboration.Together with co-founder Francesca Jandasek, the Howard County native is back in town after a whirlwind dance tour, and is...